Rosberg facing 'consequences' for crash - Wolff

Toto Wolff says Mercedes may go beyond a "slap on the wrist" for Nico Rosberg after his collision with Lewis Hamilton at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Rosberg made contact with Hamilton on lap two at Les Combes, giving Hamilton a puncture and dropping him out of contention for points - with the Brit later saying there was little Mercedes could do to reprimand his team-mate. It later emerged Rosberg had admitted he wanted to "prove a point" by leaving his nose in at the corner and Wolff admits the team has harsh punishments it can implement on its championship leader if it feels the need to.

"A lot," Wolff said when asked what Mercedes could do to rectify the situation. "I'm not going to comment on this right now. Today we've seen the limits of the slap on the wrist. Maybe the slap on the wrist is not enough. If Lewis has said that it's going to be a slap on the wrist, and that there's going to be no consequence, then he's not aware of what consequences we can implement."

Mercedes has been largely praised this year for letting its drivers race each other but Wolff admits the incident at Spa-Francorchamps means it has to re-assess that policy.

"Unfortunatly, yes," Wolff said when asked if the collision could spell the end of Mercedes' approach. "It would be too early to elaborate in detail because the devil lies in the detail in that case. We haven't decided that yet. We are all fans, and we owe it to ourselves and everybody out there to let them race. Today that philosophy has ended in Mercedes losing many, many points and we don't want to end up in Abu Dhabi with a season where we lost a championship - constructors' or drivers' - because we were too much race fans.

"We have probably not hit the self-destruct button yet but there is a lot at stake. If you don't manage this properly now it could end up at that point. Obviously it's one thing enjoying great races and letting them fight each other hard but you look like a fool at the end of the season if you haven't won anything."